Possession divestment by sales in later life

Abstract

Residential relocation in later life is almost always a downsizing, with many possessions to be divested in a short period of time. This article examines older movers’ capacities for selling things, and ways that selling attenuates people's ties to those things, thus accomplishing the human dis-possession of the material convoy. In qualitative interviews in 79 households in the Midwestern United States, older adults reported their experience with possession sales associated with residential relocation. Among this group, three-quarters of the households downsized by selling some belongings. Informal sales seemed the least fraught of all strategies, estate sales had mixed reviews, and garage sales were recalled as laborious. Sellers’ efforts were eased by social relations and social networks as helpers and buyers came forward. As selling proceeded, sentiment about possessions waned as their materiality and economic value came to the fore, easing their detachment from the household. Possession selling is challenging because older adults are limited in the knowledge, skills, and efforts that they can apply to the recommodification of their belongings. Selling can nonetheless be encouraged as a divestment strategy as long as the frustrations and drawbacks are transparent, and the goal of ridding is kept in view.

“Should I give it away or sell it?” A strategic perspective on consumers’ redistribution of their unused objects

“…In line with studies that acknowledge the importance of disposition in consumer behavior (Jacoby et al 1977), our research focuses on the last step of the disposal behaviorredistribution-and contributes to the growing literature on disposition practices by offering a broader perspective on redistribution practices. Our research, by illuminating the strategic dimension of redistribution practices, complements prior research on the influence of consumers ' individual characteristics (e.g., age;Ekerdt & Addington, 2015), motivations (Ha-Brookshire & Hodges, 2009), attitudes (e.g., environmental concerns;Bianchi & Birtwistle, 2012), or the type of objects (Hibbert et al, 2005) on redistribution. In other words, we suggest that consumers determine which redistribution mode is appropriate to dispose of their mundane unused objects, by comparing a set of alternatives.…”

“…How do consumers decide whether to redistribute or throw away their unused possessions? The ways this issue has been examined by scholars is twofold: either they consider redistribution (vs. discarding) in general (e.g., De Ferran et al, 2020;Hibbert et al, 2005;Trudel et al, 2016) or they focus on one specific mode of redistribution, such as selling (Ekerdt & Addington, 2015) or giving (Bianchi & Birtwistle, 2012). In both cases, what matters is determining what factors or combination of factors may influence redistribution: the tradeoff between different modes of redistribution is largely overlooked.…”

“…Fourth, prior studies demonstrate the influence of socio-demographics on redistribution modes. For example, because of their perceived lack of competence, the elderly tend to prefer giving away than selling unused objects, whereas this is the opposite for younger people (Ekerdt & Addington, 2015). In the context of clothing donations, Bianchi and Birtwistle (2012) show that the elderly and people with strong environmental concerns tend to give more to charity than to their families, suggesting that different factors such as individual characteristics and the type of product are linked and interact together in redistribution choices.…”

“…Belk et al (1988) suggest that swapping fosters social exchange and a sense of community among sellers. However, studies' main focus on a single practice, such as gift-giving (Cruz-Cárdenas & del Val Núñez, 2016;Guillard & Del Bucchia, 2012a), sale (Ekerdt & Addington, 2015;Juge et al, 2019), or barter (Camacho-Otero et al, 2020), ignores consumers' tradeoff between different disposal practices.…”

Linking public health and heritage work

“…Reactions to potential or managed loss are core to the concept of heritage (DeSilvey and Harrison 2020). Within gerontology, possession studies have explored how older adults distribute and dispossess their cherished items (Ekerdt and Baker 2014;Ekerdt and Addington 2015). Some possessions are distributed to establish heritage links.…”